The Exquisite Corps: XCOM: Enemy Within - Part 20

Alex always restores my faith in this series.

In Navarro We Trust.

The people who said to look to the Waypoint playthrough for the good plays have been strangely silent lately.

Here we go again!

Thank you Alex, you give us all hope.

@eloj: I mean, they got messed up in that last video but at least they understood they'd messed up right as they activated the second pod and then they tried to salvage a bad situation, they never went "this is bullshit. The game is so janky and unfair".

Seems like Abby has drawn the short straw again in terms of unfortunate placement of missions and episodes. Dan gets an extraction mission and then.... well some stuff will happen on the episode after. Looking forward to this.

@tehrevel: The thing you're thinking of can happen at any time over a 10 day period which hasn't started yet. So since they typically only advance about 2-4 days each episode there's way of knowing who gets to deal with it. Could just as well be Dan or Alex.

So the mousewheel thing gives priority to the floor you've scrolled to. Alex was having issues because he scrolled all the way up, and there was no third or fourth floor. It's poorly implemented in this xcom, much better in xcom 2.

Alex runs are usually smooth

Did anyone actually expect Exquisite Corps to make it to episode 20?

Thanks Alex for being the only one that cared about this series.

It wouldn't have gone this far if Alex wasn't involved...

Alex still rocking that clean record!

Am I missing something? Shouldn't there be more exalt story missions?

I appreciated the emphasis on "Clear Unit". Thank you Alex.

It´s ma favorite part of th rotation. The Alex cleanup crew!

I hope Alex gets to keep his clean record all the way through.

I wonder about that EXALT prevention thing people were talking about. I still can´t tell where in the menus they´re supposed to find it. It doesn´t seem like they´ve been made aware of it being a thing either.

Alex is our rock.

69%.

Not nice enough.

If they wanted to stop Abomination from hogging all the experience then they could always give him the starting weapons instead of laser, and eventually plasma, rifles, but the fear of losing units makes them not want to trade off any of their most powerful unit's attack power, so they'll keep on putting their best equipment on him and using Headshot wherever possible.

A system wherein you can only bring one main weapon along for the ride seems to make it a pain to avoid EXP sponges compared to something like a Fire Emblem, where the Titanias of the world have their Good Weapon that one-shots basically everything and their Bad Weapon that just barely leaves things alive for the weaker units to kill.

What I must know, is this Jack Gallagher, or Gentleman Jack Gallagher? Because Gentleman Jack Gallagher would turn heel and join EXALT.

Well played Alex!

I've started playing XCOM 2 this weekend and oh boy I hope they play that next; especially with the Wrath of the Chosen DLC.

Having the play styles and experiences levels constantly fluctuate with the different commanders is why this series is great. The series would be flat with consistent good play

It is sad Dan had to be a heel because OG Dave Langzone has survived the entire series but everytime I see Col. Ryckert I can only see the lie.

@alexplease spend more more next time you always leave Dan so much to spend and you never spend any at all. Don't forget your hangers and aircraft will need attention and upgrades eventually!

20 episodes and finally someone clicks on the Foundry!

44 engineers goes a long way to reduce the cost and time spent on engineering projects and yet without a Foundry they're only seeing half of the available gear.

Those Foundry upgrades would go a long way to protect rookie squad members, improve the medkits and make all those desperate pistol shots more effective.

The cycle of this series seems to be: Dan makes a mess, Abby struggles to recover, then Alex puts things in a good position just in time for Dan to ruin it again.

That was some real solid play by Commander Navarro there with only a little bit of "jank of war" :D

The Abomination is a real killing machine. Try as you might, you cannot deny it its kills!

Have Donna and Gita been 'fired' so that Exalt recruit them for their insider knowledge? I think I've seen this action thriller before.

very nice, other than the 1 wound a perfect mission!

I could watch a feature with a strategic game of Alex + Vinny all day

Alex mentions reading the comments and taking their advice. He actually shows that he takes the advice seriously and does the best.

*HUGE thinking emoji*

Save us Commander Navarro. You are our only hope.

@jacksukeru:

I believe the EXALT stuff is on the situation room menu under covert ops. They were told about it but someone clicked through it instead of reading it.

Yup. Abby also read some comments, probably on the first episode but not after which is why she still apologizes every time she dashes.

Does XCOM EW have a mod that would make the unit run speed faster? After XCOM 2 I've been thinking about doing an EW run which I never did before, but the unit speed is kind of a weird sticking point.

Like, spreading out kills to rank up lower soldiers instead of feeding everything to Abomination is a tactic that I thought was above the ken of the Corps, it's good that they tried that

They gave us all the clues.

“Chrissie MacLeod” is basically a female version of my name, so I did a double take when I heard that one.

Someone should let them know that units not going on a mission still keep their inventory. Instead of buying new equipment for everyone they could just clear the equipment assigned to people not going out on the mission.

@larmer: Just gonna say that this is probably the worst time in the campaign to pick that up as a habit!

Huge thanks to Vinny for making sure Alex knows what options he has and warning him before he might do something he does not intend to do. That's the best way to prevent dumb mistakes and also helps them learn the game, without straight up telling them how to play. Please keep doing that for the viewers mental well being. Although I know Dan will refuse to listen to advice and Abby will have done something before Vinny even gets the chance to speak.

Giving an Irish squaddy union jack colours would be EXTREMELY PROBLEMATIC!

Glad there were none!

Like others have said:

1. Check the Covert Ops menu in the Situation Room.

2. Build the Foundry for lots of useful upgrades.

That aside, great work by Alex again. A fearsome commander, indeed.

Alex seems like the only one that understands this game. The others should take note. Especially the not taking the final move until everyone is in position. Well done.

@vespene_jazz said:

Yeah, I think peak timing for this feature would've been Project B.E.A.S.T.-era Giant Bomb East. Vinny, Alex, and Austin on this feature would've been amazing.

Abby is trying her best to pick up a game she's inexperienced with, and Dan is doing....something, but they're both struggling with their own impatience with the controls/menus, and they both make some poor judgment calls from time to time when it comes to tactics and positioning.

Vinny and Alex are the ones really holding this whole thing together.

Props to Alex for the In The Loop reference, very nice.

This has been said a thousand times before, but I do wish they'd allow themselves to do more than one mission per episode. The pacing of this series feels glacial.

@alex, that was the most impressive display of tactical prowess that the Exquisite Corps has ever demonstrated. You played cautiously, you stuck your squad together and only ran Tim Turi off on his own at a smart moment when you were fairly sure he wasn't near enemies, you chose smart positioning when advancing your units. At certain points you made moves different from what I would've chosen, but the moves you chose were valid alternatives.

I salute you.